Today (10-4-00) someone signed my guestbook saying, in effect, "Why are you
wasting your time praying for middle-aged millionaires when there are so many
poor people who need God's help even more? You should be praying for your
friends and family instead!"

My answer has two points:

God's grace has no means test. Certainly, we need to help the poor
and needy. That's why I support organizations like Teen Challenge, a
faith-based drug rehab program with a phenomenal success rate, and
Speed-the-Light, a fund that provides vehicles to missionaries in other
countries. That's why I work with Victim Assistance, participate
in food drives, and give to organizations that help those in need. But
the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22, Luke 18:18-23) was
just as lost as the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39) and
the woman at the well (John 4:4-30, 39-42), and Jesus loved them all.
In fact, it was harder for the rich man to do what Jesus wanted him
to do! "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'I
tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God'" (Matthew 19:23-24; see
also Mark 10:23-24, Luke 18:24-25)

This may sound odd to non-fans, but to fans, these
men are our friends, even though we don't know them. We watched
their show and grew to love them as if they were members of our own circle
of friends. And since we view them in this way, we show the same
concern for them as we do for all our other loved ones. And we don't
want them to die without knowing Jesus as their Savior. But since we
can't talk to them in person, the most (or rather, the least) we can do for
them is pray. And everyone, rich or poor, great or small, needs
someone to pray for them.

So no, I'm not advocating praying only for the
Monkees and neglecting our other duties as Christians. We need to do what
we can for everyone, and we need to take care of our own. And this site is
not for an audience of four. My purpose in creating this site was to show
fellow Christian Monkees fans what place our fandom has in our faith and to show
non-Christian fans that Christians are people, too. We can have fun
and enjoy life, and it's not just a bunch of rules that we have to worry about
keeping to the last detail; rather, Christianity is about having a personal
relationship with the Creator of the universe, a relationship that frees us from
the bondage of sin, gives us strength, joy, and hope, and allows us to have an
abundant life.

But the Dudes are people, too, and "all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, emphasis
added). And if we don't pray for them, who will?